Episode 9: Tenemos que ser fuertes

Hey Vecino,Ponte Vicks. That was the answer to everything growing up. Pero that remedio doesn’t work well with suppressed emotions. A veces it seemed like emotions were expected to be healed instead of felt.Let me tell you how I know this.Because a lot of us grew up in homes where feelings were something you managed quietly. Where the goal was to keep going, not to fall apart. Where the adults around us moved through loss, through pain, through impossible circumstances — and did it in silence.And we watched.And we learned.Not from a conversation. Not from anyone explaining the rules. Just from being in those rooms long enough to understand what was expected.You feel it. You don’t show it. You keep moving. You sé fuerte.Y así nos fuimos formando.WHAT THIS EPISODE IS ABOUTFor a lot of bicultural Latinos, emotional suppression isn’t just a personal pattern. It’s a cultural inheritance. One that was born out of real survival, real sacrifice, and real love.But somewhere along the way, strength got redefined.It stopped meaning we could handle hard things.It started meaning we weren’t allowed to feel them.And then we stepped into American spaces that told us the opposite. Feel your feelings. Name your emotions. Vulnerability is strength. And something in us exhaled — because finally someone was speaking a language we had always felt but never been given words for.Pero then we went home.And none of it was safe to practice there.So now we’re living entre dos mundos — fluent in the language of feelings pero unable to speak it in the rooms where we need it most.That’s the tension this episode is about.WHAT WE COVERWhat the body does with emotions that never get expressedThe specific pain of knowing how to feel but not having a safe place to do itWhat it looks like to reclaim the voice and the tenderness you deserved all alongWhy strength was never supposed to mean don’t feelKEY TAKEAWAYStrength is not the absence of grief.Strength is being present enough to feel it and still stay in the room.And the tenderness you deserved — the permission to feel, to need, to not be okay — nobody has to give that to you anymore.You can give it to yourself.Es tuyo. Nobody can take it back once you claim it.LISTEN TO EPISODE 9https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/entre-mundos-podcast/id1889591391https://www.youtube.com/@EntreMundosCollectivehttps://open.spotify.com/show/0HUrOsWxNmgcT7vqrad9O5?si=447708b5e066468eWANT TO GO DEEPER?Tomorrow I’m posting a full article that goes deeper into what’s actually happening when we can’t let ourselves feel — the cultural layer, the body layer, and a small practice to start reclaiming your own voice.If the episode opens the door, the article walks through it.Keep an eye out for it mañana.And if someone came to mind while reading this — someone who always holds it together, who never lets anyone see them struggle, who says estoy bien before the question is even finished — compártelo.Porque a lot of us are carrying this.We just never had the words for it.Un abrazote fuerte.Tu vecino, John Eli This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit entremundoscollective.substack.com